Ex-Newcastle winger Chris Waddle believes his former club have a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
It is expected that England will have five places in next season’s competition and, with Liverpool and Arsenal set to take up two of those positions, Waddle told 10bet that the Magpies will be in the mix for the three remaining spots:
“I think there’s going to be four different teams fighting over three places, but I also think that we could be in for one surprise. Chelsea will get in. Forest I think look like they’re going to keep fighting for it. We keep waiting for Forest to fall away but they never do.”
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“Man City, they’re not playing great, they’ll be looking over their shoulder now. I think they’re in the pack with Newcastle. Behind those clubs, you’ve got teams that could sneak in there if they can put a run of wins together because it’s really, really tight. Could a Bournemouth or a Fulham do that? Could Brighton? I’m not going to rule it out.”
“It’s amazing the Premier League; the standard keeps being raised. There’s a lot of teams challenging for the top four, and that simply wasn’t the case a few years ago. Newcastle have a great run of fixtures. Winning the Carabao Cup and getting into the Champions League would be an amazing season for them.”
“Liverpool and Arsenal are obviously in. Aston Villa have been hit-and-miss this season. They may put a run together, but I think it will be difficult for them, especially with the Champions League matches against PSG on the horizon.”
Who will Newcastle face in their last 10 games?
Eddie Howe’s men were not in Premier League action last weekend due to their participation in the Carabao Cup final so they do have an advantage over other teams competing for Champions League places due to their game in hand.
As mentioned by Waddle, their next few fixtures are ‘winnable’. They host Brentford at home in the first match after the international break before travelling to play Leicester. 6 days after facing the Foxes, they will take on Manchester United at St James’ Park.
There are some difficult games to come after that. They end the season by playing Crystal Palace (h), Aston Villa (a), Ipswich (h), Brighton (a), Chelsea (h), Arsenal (a) and Everton (h).
How many points will Howe’s team need?
Usually, 70 points is required to qualify for the Champions League but, with 5th place expected to be enough this campaign, the two total is likely to be lowered to around 65.
With the Magpies already having 47 in the bag, that would mean getting six wins from the last ten matches, which is achievable.
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